Utopia Planitia
]] :For the construction facility, see Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards. Utopia Planitia was a vast lava plain on the planet Mars. It hosted the surface structures of a starship construction facility, the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, one of the Federation's most extensive construction yards. Utopia Planitia was built prior to 2069. ( ) In the 22nd century, Max Gabl Raymond was born here. ( , okudagram) In 2366, Doctor Leah Brahms was living in Quayle Canals Northeast, Utopia Planitia Gardens. ( , okudagram) Benjamin Sisko was stationed on Utopia Planitia between the death of his wife (at Wolf 359) and his posting on Deep Space 9. ( ) While on Utopia Planitia, Sisko worked on the prototype – the first in what was to be a fleet of warships to defend the Federation from the Borg. After work on the project slowed, and design flaws became apparent, the project was shelved. ( ) In 2370, in an alternate quantum reality, a partially-constructed starship was housed in the surface facilities of Utopia Planitia. ( ) Background information Although never stated on-screen, Utopia Colony (itself possibly part of the Martian colonies) probably was located on Utopia Planitia. According to the , the plain was "first explored by the automated space probe , which softlanded there on September 3, 1976, part of Earth's first attempt to employ spaceflight in the search for extraterrestrial life." The notes that the landscape and city seen in was located at Utopia Planetia. It further noted: "The city of Utopia Planitia in 'Lifesigns' was a matte painting by Dan Curry, based on designs by Anthony Fredrickson and Doug Drexler. The fact that the was supposed to have been built at Utopia Planitia was inscribed on the dedication plaque for the ship located on the main bridge. A copy of the dedication plaque was included in a CD-ROM collection of art and literature assembled by the and was launched toward the surface of Mars aboard the Russian space probe, although the probe never made it out of Earth orbit due to a launch vehicle malfunction." The painting of the surface facilities in was by Rick Sternbach and Michael Okuda. Asked if construction indeed was intended to take place on the surface of Mars, Okuda answered: "Yes, that was the intent, although I like the suggestion that it might have been a training facility. It was something that Rick and I put together in Photoshop. I don't recall exactly who did what, but I remember that the upper image uses a bunch of simple paper models that we made for use as ... generic futuristic city buildings for exactly this sort of image. Rick may remember more about this. I do recall that we wondered how the components would be brought into orbit, whether they'd be beamed up, hauled up by space elevator, or carried by a huge orbital tug .... "It construction certainly would be difficult, and I personally think that it would be more likely that the major component assembly would be done in orbit. I believe that Rick felt this way, too. Still, impulse engines routinely accelerate starship masses (many tens, even hundreds of thousands of tons) to large fractions of the speed of light in very brief times. This suggests a propulsion technology many thousands of times more powerful than anything we have in the 21st century. Also, structural integrity fields would need to protect against these accelerations, which conservatively would exceed 1,000 gees. As a result, I'd contend that lifting major starship components into orbit from the surface of Mars would be well within the reach of Star Trek s postulated technology." http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/showflat.php?Cat &Number 5552963&page 0&view collapsed&sb 5&o 7&fpart 1 External link * cs:Utopia Planitia de:Utopia Planitia es:Utopia Planitia fr:Utopia Planitia nl:Utopia Planitia Category:Geography